It was 53 years ago today that Lee Harvey Oswald presumably acted alone in an assassination of John F. Kennedy, one of the most beloved figures in American political history.
That set off a chain of reactions that allowed American many visions of how it would be seen in the world — from dreams of a Great Society, to the counter-culture emerging over the Vietnam War to Nixon’s impeachment over Watergate.
With all of that rich history surrounding the Kennedy tragedy, it can be easy to forget the implications of his election itself. It was the first time a Catholic won over large swaths of Protestant America, a campaign that challenged deeply traditional beliefs and promised one thing: “Let’s get this country moving again.”
Let’s take a look at how Kennedy’s election upended political convention with his election in 1960:
A Catholic takes the White House
It wasn’t until Kennedy defeated Hubert Humphrey in the state of West Virginia that his youthful idealism looked to have a serious chance at reaching political reality. Indeed, in 1963, he credited the state — which was deeply impoverished, and comprised of only 5 percent Catholics — for helping him win the White House.
“I would not be where I now am, I would not have some of the responsibilities which I now bear, if it had not been for the people of West Virginia,” he said.
John F. Kennedy listening to the plight of West Virginians (JFK Presidential Library)
It signified a new direction for the country when it appeared as if this staunchly Protestant part of the country signaled it would put their trust into a suave, Harvard-educated aristocrat from New England.
Kennedy’s promise to the country
By the time of his election in November of 1960, the 43-year-old president elect had been able to sway not only urban minorities, progressives and union labor but several conservative-leaning blocs across the South who had voted for Gen. Dwight Eisenhower in the previous two elections.
He did it with a message of hope for a better future: Along with Lyndon B. Johnson, the Democrats pledged to get the country out of a “rut” and combat the Cold War threat with a sensitivity unprovided by the older, more experienced Republican nominee.
Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States. Washington, DC 20 January 1961. (U. S. Army Signal Corps photograph in the JFK Presidential Library, Boston)
Once they won, the Kennedy-Johnson team mostly delivered on their promise “to seek a new frontier,” by bringing in some of the brightest minds to Washington who were known as the New Frontiersmen.
The enduring legacy of John F. Kennedy
Many modern organizations owe a debt to Kennedy, from the Green Berets and Navy Seals, to the Harvard Institute of Politics and Peace Corps.
With Jackie Kennedy by his side, the president made it through scandalous White House affairs to lead the nation through 34 months of trying times that included the Bay of Pigs scandal, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the threat of nuclear warfare, and the establishment of a Civil Rights Act and immigration reform.
A presidential briefing at Cape Canaveral, Florida with NASA officials. (Cecil Stoughton, JFK Presidential Library)
And yet, we are left to wonder what else would have been accomplished.
On Nov. 22, 1963 the president’s motorcade would travel through Dallas so that he could meet with Democratic Party officials with whom he had varying disagreements. That’s when a bullet hit his upper back, and flew through his head around 12:30 p.m. horrifying the nation.
Conspiracy theorists have disputed the players behind the assassination, and the 6th floor museum has been preserved at the spot Oswald is accused of taking aim at Kennedy. The same fate would befall his brother Robert five years later during his own run at the presidency.
U.S. Congressman Joseph Kennedy III, of D-Mass. (Butch Comegys/The Times Tribune via AP)
Many surviving members of his family would go on to have illustrious careers in politics, including one modern rising star of the Democratic Party, Joe Kennedy III.